This relates generally to electronic equipment and, more particularly, to electronic equipment with wireless circuitry that can be used by the equipment to identify the location of the equipment.
Electronic devices are sometimes provided with satellite navigation system capabilities. For example, cellular telephones may be provided with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. The GPS receiver in a cellular telephone may be used to ascertain the location of the cellular telephone. Applications such as mapping applications can use the location information to pinpoint a user's location on a map.
In situations such as those involving roads with branches, GPS systems in vehicles can have difficulties in accurately determining which branch of the road a vehicle is located on. As a result, commercially available GPS solutions may not provide sufficient resolution to determine when a vehicle has exited a freeway.
In cities, the presence of tall buildings can make it difficult to receive an accurate GPS signal. Tall buildings create what is sometimes referred to as an urban canyon environment. In an urban canyon environment, the presence of buildings and landscaping can block the open sky from view by a GPS receiver. Reflections can also degrade GPS signals by causing multipath interference. As a result, GPS location information can be slow or impossible to obtain.
To address the problems associated with using GPS signals to ascertain a user's location in an urban canyon environment, some cellular telephones use signals from nearby cellular telephone towers or information about nearby WiFi® hotspots to help determine the user's location. Schemes such as these may require the use of hardware that consumes excessive power.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved ways in which to ascertain the location of electronic equipment and to use the location to provide services to a user of the electronic equipment.